Royce (1994) (TV)

Director:

Rod Holcomb

Writer (WGA):

Paul Bernbaum (written by)

Release Date:

3 April 1994 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Comedy | Thriller

Plot:

Royce is a member of the ultra-secret service "Black Hole", working for the US Government on top-secret missions...

Plot Keywords:

Kidnapping | Nuclear | Revenge | Spy | Train

Cast

James Belushi	...	Shane Royce
Miguel Ferrer	...	Gribbon
Peter Boyle	...	Huggins
Chelsea Field	...	Marnie Paymer
Anthony Head	...	Pitlock
Marie Theodore	...	Jerri Sloan
Paris Jefferson	...	Brenda
James McKenna	...	Danny Scanlon (as Nevyn McKenna)
Michael Shannon	...	Senator Scanlon (as Michael J. Shannon)
Susan Denaker	...	Dee Scanlon
Christopher Fairbank	...	Kupchak
William Marsh	...	Rafkin
Ralph Ineson	...	Newfold
Daniel Kash	...	Tommy McFain
Michael Halsey	...	Oken

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Ultra Stereo

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Germany:16 | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Budapest, Hungary

Company:

Gerber Company

Goofs:

Continuity: Royce kicks open a door that has a pneumatic door closer on it, and yet in the next shot the door quickly flies open and bounces against a wall.

Soundtrack:

Low Impact Funk

Belushi isn't the only thing that's flabby

Jim Belushi is usually a pretty watchable actor. He's easygoing, and has an everyman quality that is actually sort of endearing. He's usually pretty convincing as a harried cop, a department store Santa Claus, or even a con-artist on parole. But a secret agent? Nahhh. In trying to make Belushi come across as a highly trained, lethal James Bond clone, the picture winds up making him look like an overweight, underachieving Ralph Kramden clone. The lame plot has Belushi's top-secret unit being disbanded, and several of its members turning renegade and plotting to steal nuclear weapons to sell to drug dealers, and Belushi has to stop them (for some reason this plan is revealed fairly early in the picture; you know that Belushi is going to succeed at stopping them, which pretty much kills whatever suspense there might have been). A good supporting cast (Miguel Ferrer, Peter Boyle) and a few bursts of action towards the end of the picture don't really help it much. The script is flat, the direction is workmanlike but nothing more, the location shooting in Eastern Europe is depressing (apparently the entire region looks like the industrial section of Jersey City), and there's really little suspense, style, or anything else that might break the monotony. Belushi is kind of fun to watch, but that's not enough of a reason to spend a couple of bucks to rent this picture. Don't bother.